Carnival of Terror
by Ichabod Ebenezer
Summary: Nth Doctor part 4 of 12. Pandora invites the Doctor to a fun faire in Upminster, but creatures from another dimension are turning people into side-show freaks. This time, the Doctor may be in over his head. A bit of a Halloween episode, perhaps a bit scarier than my usual. Original Doctor and companion, but I don't own any rights. BBC might sue at any time... (Please don't)
1. The Faire

The Doctor stood, submerged to mid-thigh in the River Wandle, in the shade of a leafy tree. He hitched in his line and with a flick of his pole, wet his lure. He snapped it back out and waved the rod forward and back, the fly describing lazy loops over the water's rippled surface, then made his true cast. He let the fly sit on the water and let the slow current take it for several seconds before snapping the rod back, dragging in line and repeating the process.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so relaxed. He had waders on over his customary cargo pants and over his graphic tee he wore a vest which was of course, covered in small pockets. He also wore a floppy hat pinned with a dozen or so hand-tied flies that were the work of last night. The lure he was using was an orange-tip. The one he was most proud of was his large red damsel, but one had to work up to one's favorite. If one started with it, everything after is disappointment - especially if it works better.

He cast again, and hit the spot he'd more or less been aiming for, just off the bank and slightly upstream of a group of shade trees. Just the sort of spot a fat brown trout might enjoy on a late summer evening.

At that moment his phone rang, an echoing whoosh that had reminded him of an old friend. Very few people had his number, so either a package had been delivered, a telemarketer didn't know what they were in for, or Pandora was looking for him. He wasn't expecting any packages today, and as it turned out, it wasn't a telemarketer.

He let go of the line momentarily to activate an earpiece in his left ear to answer the phone. "Caller number one, you're on the line with the Doctor, what's on your mind?" he said in his best impression of an American DJ.

"Funny, Doctor. What'cha doing tomorrow?" Pandora asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I was thinking of maybe digging a traditional Hawaiian pit barbeque and slow-roasting a whole pig. Any idea where I can pick up a whole pig for the morning?" He drew in his line and let it snap back several times, watching the tiny dot of orange that was his fly circle an eddy near the west bank of the river.

"Wrong answer, actually!" Pandora said excitedly. "Though that sounds like a great idea for some other time. Tomorrow you are going with me to Upminster. There's an old-style fun faire come to town and the Swede is working security. He says he can get us in."

Just then the Doctor felt a tug on the line. "Hah! I've got you now," he said. He tugged the pole hard to set the line.

"What do you mean, 'got me'? It's just an invite. You said you wanted a holiday, I thought it would be fun."

"Sorry, not you," the Doctor said, alternately reeling like crazy and slowly pulling his pole to vertical. "What about it makes it 'old-style'."

"The Swede says they've got performers like you don't see anymore. Freaks and geeks and fire-eaters and stuff. And they've got one of those funhouse walk-throughs that's more Brothers Grimm than Walt Disney."

"Oh, you dirty old Trout!" the Doctor exclaimed. The fish had managed to get behind a tree root, tangling the Doctor's line.

"You what?" Pandora asked, taking offense.

"Not you. You caught me trying to land a fish. Look, he's fighting back, I've got to go."

"So are you coming, or not?" she asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he said.

"Good. I'll be at your place at dawn. The Swede's got a pickup truck we can ride in. You two will finally get to meet."

"Right where I want him..." the Doctor said menacingly.

"You're talking about the fish again, right?" Pandora confirmed.

"Yep. See you tomorrow." The Doctor let go of the rod with one hand and slapped at his ear. The fish took this opportunity to run the other direction and almost took the pole. "Come back here, you beauty!" he yelled.

* * *

Bright and early the next morning, Pandora was, as promised, in the Doctor's alcove. "Do you mind if I leave this here?" she asked, setting her box down on his workbench. "They might not let me on the rides with it."

The Doctor paused, looking at it a little too long, but finally tore his eyes away and said, "Yeah, sure. Of course. Only you, Obelix and I can see this alcove from outside, so it should be safer than houses here."

"Let's go then. The Swede will be parked on the street above."

"One moment," the Doctor responded. He removed his hoodie from the coat rack and threw it on, then took his sonic out of its charging cradle and put it in his inside pocket. "Okay, ready."

"I don't remember you having to charge your old sonic," Pandora noted.

"We make choices we are most comfortable with, then we pay whatever price is required. My price is dealing with technology available in this time and place, or re-invent what I need. My choice is to weave the least dangerous path that gets the job done."

Pandora shrugged and nodded her understanding, and the two took the lift up to street level.

The Swede, as it turns out, had parked on the A5 and walked the rest of the way. When the lift got to street level, he was standing there with a broad smile beneath his proud moustache. He came in immediately and gave the Doctor a big, uncomfortable hug. When he let go, he said, "You take care of my Pandora. You are my friend."

The Doctor smiled as well and patted the Swede's large bicep. "Tell me, why do you go by 'the Swede'? Surely there are other Swedes about?"

"Ja, but they all have names like Anders and Sven and Torsten. English can pronounce them. No one can pronounce my name here, and I've gotten used to being just the Swede."

"How do you pronounce your name?" the Doctor asked, up for the challenge.

"Tryggve," the Swede said.

"The Swede it is, then," said the Doctor. "Which way to your truck?"

They walked out of the alley and down a couple streets until they came upon his battered pickup parked near a row of scooters. There was a young man in the back of the pickup already, sitting uncomfortably with Obelix who began whining and wagging his tail when he saw Pandora. The boy had dark hair cut short, but still stylish. He had brown eyes with flecks of green and lashes that were so dark it appeared he wore eyeliner, but probably didn't. He wore a leather jacket that looked a size too big over a plain white t-shirt and black jeans with the knees shredded. He had a wallet shoved in his back pocket hanging from a chain connected to his belt and he word Doc Martens with the name of a local band written on the side in whiteout.

Pandora first greeted the dog warmly, then hitched her bag up higher on her shoulder and said, "Hey," to the boy.

"Hey," he said back and got up on his knees and put out a hand. "Blaise," he said.

Pandora took his hand and shook it, one light pump. "Pandora."

"Doctor, Blaise. Blaise, Doctor," said the Swede. "Climb in. We should be going."

Blaise put his hand out to the Doctor too. "Blaise," he said.

"Like Pascal, right?" the Doctor asked, taking his hand and pulling himself up into the bed of the truck.

"Yeah, exactly," said Blaise. "My dad taught maths."

They all sat, Obelix laying down with his head in Pandora's lap, and the Swede made a U-turn. Traffic was light this early in the day, and they made good time, but the wind stole away their words, so they had no opportunity to get to know Blaise any further on their way East. Obelix stood at some point to walk to the front of the bed and stick his face out into the wind. Blaise squeezed into the left front corner to avoid being stood upon by the massive dog.

The Swede turned off the main road at Upminster, then took side streets through neighborhoods, and finally a dirt road into farmland. The fun faire stood in a farmer's fallow field where the driving became slow, and the ride became uncomfortably bumpy. Obelix returned to lie in Pandora's lap.

The Swede held up a card as they approached the parking attendant and he waved them on through. He parked just outside the faire proper, near a collection of pickups and caravans, then came around and lowered the t-gate.

Steam rose from the damp ground giving the faire an eerie quality that went along with the muted calliope music and the painted faces. A chill went through Pandora on this already warm Summer morning. She smiled and held out a hand for the Doctor.

Blaise stepped in. "Hey, would you like me to show you around a bit? You know, show you what's what?"

"Blaise," the Swede said sternly, hands on hips. "The pretty girl is here to see the carnival, but you and I are here to work. Remember I vouched for you." He shook a finger at Blaise. "Don't make me look bad."

"Yeah, alright. Sorry," he said with some shame, then more hopefully, "But I get a lunch break. The funnel cakes are great! I can meet you up then." He looked up at the Swede nervously.

Pandora smiled. "Yeah alright, sounds good. Doctor?"

"Funnel cakes sound just the thing," the Doctor said.

"Brilliant!" Blaise said, raising a hand in parting, then ran off toward the far end of the faire.

"You want me to take Obelix?" Pandora asked the Swede.

"No, I'm afraid Obelix is working today too," the Swede replied. "You know, he was a police dog in Norrköping before we come here." He tapped the side of his nose. "Good nose. No one gets past him. No drugs, booze or um, how do you say, sprängämnen?"

"Explosives," the Doctor interjected.

"Ja!" the Swede said, pointing at the Doctor and smiling. "Och guns too."

"Well, shall we then?" the Doctor said, clapping.

Pandora held her hand out again and the Doctor took it this time. The two of them turned and walked toward the faire. Pandora turned one last time and waved. "Thanks!" she called.

The Swede waved back, then turned to Obelix. "Kom," he said, switching to Swedish. "Låt oss gå till arbetet." The dog heard one of his keywords and suddenly became attentive and businesslike.

* * *

Despite the early hour, the crowds started arriving just as the faire opened. Pandora noted her surprise at how early it filled up, and the Doctor suggested that it was because of the heat. "It'll get up to forty-three degrees today. People want to get back home before that."

"Forty-three? No way," Pandora said, pulling her tablet out of her bag. "I mean, it's been hot, but not that hot." She fiddled with the tablet for a bit before putting it away disappointed. "Naturally there's no Wi-Fi around here."

They stopped at one of the games along the way, where the Doctor won for Pandora a small stuffed leprechaun. It turned out he was an ace with throwing rings over milk bottles.

They grabbed some doner kebab from one of the booths because, as the Doctor said, "It just doesn't feel like a faire unless you've got food in your hand."

They walked along for a bit. "You want to go on an orbiter? Tagada?" the Doctor asked.

"Nah, I get queazy," Pandora responded.

"Dodgems?"

"Sure, but after we're done eating."

"There's Punch and Judy! Oh, I love a Punch and Judy!" he said, then knitted his eyebrows. "Unless the puppets come to life and start attacking. That happens sometimes. Oh, I know! The Ferris wheel! You can see the whole faire from up there and decide what's next. And it's a nice sit while you eat. What do you say?"

"Sure, let's go," Pandora agreed.

The queue for the wheel wasn't long and five minutes later, they we're seated and climbing high over the faire ground.

"You know, the first wheel was put up in Chicago during the World's Fair of 1893," the Doctor said while Pandora ate. "Built by a railroad engineer - not like the guy who drives the train, like an architect. He built bridges and the like - he went by the name of George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. Imagine that. There was a bloke with the name 'George Washington Gale Ferris' and he thought, my son should have that name too. Anyway, he barely got to build it. The people funding the fair didn't believe it could be done safely, so he brought in a team of engineers to testify to his design. In the end, it was the biggest draw to the fair. It took twenty minutes to go around twice, and cost you fifty cents. The way I hear it, the fair runners never paid Ferris his-"

Suddenly, the Doctor dropped his kebab on the seat and stood up, looking around intently. Whatever got his attention, Pandora didn't notice. She took a last bite and set her kebab down to listen. She heard it then, above the sound of screams coming from people enjoying the rides, there was one, panicked, terrified.

As they passed the platform, the operator yelled for the Doctor to sit down, but he ignored him. As they began to climb again, the Doctor stepped up onto the seat and gripped the support structure. He leaned out and surveyed the grounds. He located the source of the screaming when he saw people running away from the funhouse.

There were now three carnival workers standing on the platform yelling up at the Doctor. Pandora tried to get the Doctor to sit down, but the Doctor ignored her as well. As the wheel brought them down to ground level, the Doctor deftly stepped off the car and onto the platform. "Excuse me," he said to no one in particular, and the line parted for him to hurry through.

Pandora raised her hands in exasperation, then leaned over the side. "Could you stop the ride, mate?" The movement of the ride took her out of earshot and she had to wait until she came around again. She stood up and tried to pick the Doctor out of the crowd. It turned out to be easy, because he was the only one heading toward the funhouse. Everyone else was either milling about or leaving the funhouse area. When the wheel brought Pandora close to the ground again, she started calling for the attendants' attention. "Oy! Stop the ride! My friend got off! Let me out."

They stared at her, almost slack-jawed as she passed the platform and headed up again, but as she reached the top, the ride began to slow, and they let her off when she got to the platform again.

"What your friend did is dangerous," one of them said as she passed.

Pandora only just realized that the noise of the faire, the music of the wheel, and the conversations of the crowd meant that no one at ground level had heard the screaming or noticed the disturbance. "Yeah, he can be a right nutter sometimes," Pandora responded and headed quickly toward the funhouse.

The funhouse was called the 'House of Horrors' and bore a sign saying, "Not for the young or faint of heart. No pregnant women, please." She found the Doctor and Blaise talking to a young couple. The woman had mascara running down her face and was talking and pointing back into the funhouse. Pandora caught the words, "Those were no masks, those things were real!"

The Doctor caught Pandora's eye and inclined his head toward the exit of the funhouse. He thanked the couple and promised to investigate. Pandora joined him and the two headed in. "What happened Doctor, what did they see?"

"They weren't very reliable witnesses, but whatever it was scared them. Let's head into this with open eyes and minds. Remember just because something is odd doesn't mean it's dangerous. We've seen things they haven't."

"Yeah, but those things were scary," Pandora pointed out.

"Not all of them. If Jervaix suddenly appeared to these people they'd have freaked out. Hopefully your mind is a little broader by now."

Pandora thought back to the four-armed creature with the silvery tattoos that they had met on the planet Dor. "Sure, Doctor, I won't be scared."

Just then she stepped on a pressure plate and a ghoul on a pneumatic cylinder lunged at her, causing her to scream.

The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head slightly. He opened them back up and with a wry smile he said, "Watch your step."

The two continued on, passing by a jiggling hanged corpse and a baby with glowing eyes whose head spun around. They came around a corner to see two figures huddled together in a corner nearby, and weren't quickly able to tell whether they were part of the House of Horrors or whether these were the things that had scared everyone. To the Doctor and his companion, they looked rather more pathetic than frightening.

The Doctor approached and knelt down to their level. "Hello," he said gently. "I'm the Doctor. Do you two need any assistance?"

The two figures separated, and the male turned toward the Doctor. His face was hideous. His forehead bulged to twice normal size, and his eyebrows swept outward and upward from a pair of pinprick eyes at the very center of his face. At the point where his tiny ears appeared, his face was thin enough to fit through a wedding band. Below that, great triangular nostrils flared outward and downward to meet a thin-lipped and very wide mouth. He had barely any neck, but broad shoulders and chest, below which his slim abdomen stretched grotesquely. His upper arms were very short, but the lower parts were elongated and ended in thin hands with long fingers. His legs were short and wide, and the shoes he wore were clown-like in length. "Wwwwwww," he said, reaching out an enormous arm toward the Doctor.

Pandora took an instinctive step back, but the Doctor held his ground.

"Wwwwwhhh," the male figure repeated. "Wwwwwhhhat haaaaaapennnnnnnd toooooooo uuuuuuuth?"

The female tried to stand. She had short legs like the male, but a very round body with short thin arms that just rested on the sides of her round body. Her neck was very short and she seemed to be having trouble holding her long thin head up. Masses of blonde hair erupted from the top of her head, reaching a height nearly half again the length of her face and cascading down close to her head and over her shoulders. Her eyes were long and thin with elliptical blue irises and her mouth was parted to display enormous horse-like teeth. Tears welled in her oversized eyes and makeup ran down her face. In all, she looked highly improbable. Her short arms could never reach up to scratch her ears and her tiny lips could never close over that long mouth.

"What kind of aliens are these?" Pandora asked curiously.

The Doctor held out a hand to the female, offering to help her balance on those tiny legs. "Look at their clothes."

Pandora hadn't noticed at first because the clothes were perfectly normal. The man was wearing Dockers and a salmon-coloured Lacoste shirt, though they must have been tailored to fit his odd body shape. The woman wore yoga pants of no discernable brand, but once you accounted for how stretched out it was, you could make out the words 'Juicy Couture' across her shirt.

"Oh my god, these are people!" Pandora said in horror.

"Or, a bit more compassionately, these _people_ are victims," the Doctor said, nothing but kindness in his eyes and voice. He took off his hoodie and tried to drape it over the woman's shoulders, though it only really covered one side well. "Come on, let's get you out of here," he said.

The two victims hobbled slowly toward the exit, the Doctor carefully guiding them around the pressure plates that activated the horrors of the ride. When they got off, Blaise was waiting at the stairs and he helped them down.

"What the hell happened to them?" he asked, too shocked by their appearance to be polite.

"We don't know yet," the Doctor answered tersely. "Could you get an ambulance?"

"Yeah, sorry. Danny's got a radio." Blaise ran off in search of Danny.

"Here, take a seat by this tree," the Doctor said. A crowd was starting to gather round. The Doctor took his hoodie back and removed his sonic and his psychic paper. He handed the psychic paper to Pandora and indicated the crowd with a tilt of his head. "You know what to do?"

"Yeah, I've gotcha," Pandora said and, thinking of a clever lie, stood and faced the crowd confidently. "Alright, everybody back," she said, holding the psychic paper up like a badge. Go about your day and give them room to breath. They just stumbled on a hornet's nest and both of them allergic. Ambulance is on its way, so back off."

The Doctor smiled proudly, listening to her speech while he examined the victims with his sonic screwdriver. Blaise ran back over. "Ambulance _is_ on its way. What's that you're doing?"

The Doctor flashed his eyes at Blaise, a bit annoyed. "It's a sonic... probe. I'm checking to see if the change is superficial or if it goes deeper."

"And?" Blaise asked.

"And, their internal organs are stretched and squashed to match," he said, shutting off the sonic. "Your heart and lungs are three times normal width," he said to the woman, "but that's probably a good thing, supporting your larger frame. Bones are the same. Ribs as thin as normal, but the full width of you. That's not extra fat." He put the sonic to his lips, thinking.

The woman sobbed silently, resting her elongated head against the tree. The man kept trying to talk, but his tongue was too tall in back and too wide up front and he had difficulty getting anything out.

The Swede and two other faire workers they hadn't met were clearing a path for an ambulance. A crowd started to form around again, but this time there were performers to draw attention away. Several were making balloon animals and telling jokes, while a fire-breather put on an impressive act. Meanwhile the paramedics loaded the two victims onto stretchers and into the back of the ambulance.

The Doctor ran alongside the stretcher carrying the woman, holding her hand. "I'm going to go with you two, make sure you're okay."

Pandora appeared at his side holding the psychic paper. "Me too," she said.

The paramedics closed up the ambulance doors and climbed in the front. Blaise stood back, watching the ambulance go. He wanted to go with them, to involve himself, but couldn't come up with a good reason.

There was a tapping on his shoulder. "Hey, is the ride open or what?"

He turned around, not really hearing the question.

There was a woman standing there holding a stuffed bear, a pair of Mylar balloons and a tray of sodas. "Only, there's no one to take tickets," she said pointing to the line for the funhouse. There was a man standing there with two children, looking at them, and a queue forming behind them.

"Right, sorry. Yeah, I'll take your tickets," Blaise said and ran back to the gate.

* * *

"Don't try to say anything," the Doctor said, "just squeeze my hand. Once for yes, twice for no. Now, did the change occur slowly, over a period of time?"

Squeeze, squeeze.

"Okay, so it happened quickly. Did you feel it happen to you?"

Squeeze.

"Now this is important. Do you remember what you were doing when it happened?"

Squeeze.

The Doctor looked up at Pandora. "I think we've gotten about as far as yes and no questions as we can, unless you have some ideas?"

Pandora thought for a while. "Mostly I just wanted to be sure they know we've fixed things like this before. That we can turn them back, like we did with those kids before. Oh, I know! Was there anyone, or anything in there with you when this happened."

"Good one," the Doctor said and turned to the victims. "Was there?"

Squeeze, squeeze.

"Well, it was a good try." The Doctor let go of their hands and leaned forward to talk to the driver. "Are we nearly there?"

"Just about. But we've got to go back as soon as we get there," the driver said.

"What? Why?"

"There are another five victims, and we've only got three ambulances."

"What?" the Doctor yelled, standing up quickly and bashing his head on the low ceiling. "Shut down that funhouse! Give me the radio!"

"They already have done."

"Humans!" the Doctor ranted. "Oh, something unexplainable is happening in the funhouse, let's send in more people! Well at least someone finally used their brain and shut it down. Only took seven victims."

He visibly calmed himself down. "Sorry. Since you're heading that way, mind giving us a lift?"

* * *

When the Doctor and Pandora returned to the faire ground, the funhouse has a sign across the entrance reading, "Closed for repairs," but the crowds had died down in the heat of the day. There were still a fair amount of people milling about, but it was nothing compared to earlier.

They found Blaise changing out the liner on a rubbish bin nearby the funhouse. The Doctor marched up to Blaise and demanded, "How dare you keep letting people in when you saw what happened to the first two?"

Blaise looked as if he were afraid of being hit. He took a few steps back and said defensively, "Look, I'm really sorry, but it's not like you told me what happened, or what to do. I heard Pandora saying that it was a bee allergy thing, so I didn't see why we should keep people out. We shut it down as soon as we saw there were more victims, but they kept coming out."

The Doctor opened his mouth to yell more, but Blaise was right. In the end he said, "That was meant to fool the crowd, not you." He looked over at Pandora, but she wasn't about to help him out, so he changed the subject. "What's done is done. We need to get in there. I want to take some scans and find out what's causing this."

"Sure, I'll take you in there," Blaise said.

The three walked to the funhouse, and Blaise unlocked the chain and moved the sign, then they climbed the stairs to the entrance. A motion sensor triggered a soundtrack of maniacal laughter. "How about I shut down the effects first?" Blaise offered.

"No," the Doctor said, "It might affect the readings. Whatever caused this probably requires a power source."

They stepped inside, and immediately triggered a pressure plate that loudly blasted a jet of cold air up from the floor, causing Pandora to jump.

"You can, however, warn us when something like that is coming up, hmm?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah. Sorry," Blaine said.

They passed strobing lights and felt web-like strands brush against their face. Blaine warned them about each of the ghouls that would pop out. The Doctor examined each with his sonic screwdriver, never appearing interested in any of it. Despite being told about it in advance, Pandora still shied away from a ventriloquist's dummy that made several appearances, creeping her out.

Toward the end, they had to cross a bridge over a room that spun around them, made to appear endless by mirrors on each side and causing a severe state of vertigo. Past that were a pair of sinister looking clowns in dayglow paint in a room lit by ultraviolet lights. In between them were a pair of warped mirrors. Pandora was about to walk past when the Doctor put out a hand and stopped Pandora stepping in front of them.

Pandora stopped and turned, a questioning look on her face.

"Look familiar? People all stretched out and malformed? Picture yourself in front of one."

"Oh my God, did the mirror do this to them?"

"Perhaps," the Doctor said distantly, "but more likely, something on the other side. The question is, to what end?" He stood aside one mirror and ran his sonic around the edge. He carefully avoided touching it as he examined it. "Curious. These mirrors haven't got one blemish on them. No fingerprints, no scratches. I've never seen one so pristine, except the one next to it."

"Well, they are brand new," Blaise said.

The Doctor stopped his scanning and looked to Blaise encouragingly. "Go on," he said.

"Yeah, some of the guys were discussing it, Danny and what's his name - Marcus. The last place the faire stopped was Manchester and some vandals broke both the mirrors. They weren't even going to set up the funhouse without them, but then these came from a anonymous donor. They said these were unbreakable."

"Anonymous donor, eh?" the Doctor considered. "Interesting. Well, let's just see how unbreakable these are." He twisted the top of his sonic several clicks and stepped back. He pointed the sonic at one of the mirrors and activated it. The tip glowed bright white and it buzzed loudly. "Cover your ears," the Doctor said loudly to be heard over the noise of the sonic.

Blaise and Pandora covered their ears and the Doctor wrapped his free arm around the top of his head to plug his ears as best he could. He pulled back on the finger-ring underneath the sonic and the noise increased in pitch until it became painful to hear. The glass of the mirror vibrated fiercely, but remained intact. The Doctor pulled back even further on the ring and the pitch increased slowly into the inaudible range. The ultraviolet bulbs on both sides of the room shattered, but the mirrors merely vibrated along with the rest of the room. It got to the point where it felt as if the ceiling was going to shake apart, and the floor might crack, when the Doctor finally backed off and deactivated the sonic.

"That's pretty unbreakable," he said, stashing his sonic in his hoodie inside pocket. "Okay. Let's at least cover them with a cloth. I don't want whatever's on the other side seeing anybody else."

As they walked toward the exit, Blaise asked, "Hey, what do you mean, 'the other side'? Are you talking about other dimensions or something?"

"Very good," the Doctor replied. "That's exactly right. There are infinite parallel dimensions out there, many are very much like ours, some of them unbelievably different. There are places where the space between them gets thin enough to cross. I believe that your anonymous donor created these mirrors to be one such place, but what I still don't know is, why?"

They made their way past the final ghoul, out of the funhouse and down the stairs into the blinding mid-day sun and the scattered groups of dedicated faire-goers.

"What could an extra-dimensional species have to gain by deforming people like this?" the Doctor continued, mostly to himself.

As Pandora's eyes adjusted to the bright light of day, she saw a couple holding hands, and there was something about them that kept her attention. She broke off from the others and slowly followed the couple, her curiosity peaked. Then she realized what it was. The man was wearing a salmon-coloured shirt and Dockers. The woman was wearing yoga pants and though she saw it from behind, Pandora felt certain she was wearing a Juicy Couture top. The clincher though was the big blonde hair. "Hey, Doctor..." she called over her shoulder, fearing to look away from the couple in case they might disappear. They just couldn't be the couple from before.

She reached out and put a hand on the man's shoulder.

The couple stopped, and the man turned to face her.

The man had no face. It was just skin, stretched tightly from one edge of his hairline to the others. There were no divots for eyes, no bump for a nose, no slit for a mouth. There wasn't even really a chin. It was as if someone had stretched skin over an enormous egg and set a wig on top. Pandora was too stunned by what she saw to even move. The man moved quickly to grab her arm, then with his other hand he caught first her shoulder, then her face. Pandora stepped back, trying to get away, but he held tight, grabbing a handful of her hair. The woman, faceless as well, turned, arms extended toward Pandora, hands grasping.

Pandora screamed for her life.


	2. The Faceless

Pandora took a step away from the faceless man, but he had a firm grasp on her hair with one hand and her arm with the other. She ripped her head back painfully and he ended up with a handful of her hair. She tried to pull away from the hand holding her arm as well, but only succeeded in falling backward and pulling him on top of her. He grabbed at her face again, rubbing the clump of hair in her eyes. She screamed as loudly as she could with his hand covering her mouth.

Blaise and the Doctor reacted instantly. Blaise ran straight for Pandora while the Doctor yelled out, "Hey, Rube!"

The worker at the dart and balloon booth vaulted over the barrier. The two men running the Orbiter left the controls unattended. The stilt man abandoned the poles he was on and hit the ground running. The sword swallower yanked the rapier out of his throat and brandished it while she looked for the source. Carnival workers from all over the faire came running.

Blaise grabbed the man's hand, pulling it off Pandora's face. The man tried to grab Blaise instead, but several of the workers tackled him at once, forcing him off Pandora.

The woman was reaching out for anybody she could get a hold of, looking like a zombie from an old Universal picture. The Swede came up behind her and put her into an arm lock.

Three of the workers held the man down while two kicked at him and another punched him repeatedly in the area his face should be, but he continued to struggle with unnatural strength. The two from the Orbiter were about to start in on the woman. "No!" the Doctor yelled, running up to the altercation. "Don't hurt them! You've subdued them, they're no longer a threat!" He stood between them with his arms out protectively.

The workers beating the faceless man paused, not quite sure about stopping.

Pandora pushed herself up onto her elbows and backed away from the faceless man who had assaulted her. The Doctor looked to her with concern while still standing between the carnival workers and the faceless woman. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess. Just a bit of a shock." Pandora stood up and put one hand to the spot on her head where the patch of hair had been torn out. She pulled her hand away to examine it for blood and repeated the process a couple more times before she was satisfied that she wasn't bleeding. "No real harm done though."

"You see?" the Doctor said. "It's over now and no harm done. Let's bring them someplace out of the way where they can't hurt anyone else. Then we can find out why they're here."

At least half the crowd had their cell phones out and were filming the abbreviated fight. It was going to take a lot more than a fire-breather to distract them this time. The Doctor stepped close to Pandora and said quietly, "We need to get them to protective custody." He pulled out his own mobile and dialed 999.

* * *

The faire workers had them trussed up quite nicely, bound together back-to-back, seated on a pair of wooden chairs that were part of a balancing act at the faire. The Doctor and Pandora regarded them while they waited for the police to arrive.

"What are they?" Pandora asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen one before, but if you were looking at them through a dark mirror, a pretty good approximation of human, wouldn't you say?" the Doctor said thoughtfully, biting his thumbnail.

"Are you saying that you don't think they usually look this way?"

"Well, I'm willing to bet they don't have a Juicy Couture on the other side of the mirror, and I'm pretty sure that's where they came from. I think this is them trying to blend in. To look like us, but really they are incredibly alien. No common frame of reference at all."

"But then why did they get the shirt perfectly right, down to the alligator logo, but they can't do a proper face?"

"That's just what I mean. Faces are really hard. They've been trying for ages to get computers to recognize the same face through disguises or even just wearing makeup, but you humans have evolved with a huge chunk of your brain dedicated to nothing but facial recognition. The first thing that children learn is faces. They can pick mum out of thousands in the first hours, but over the next month or so they do nothing but build a catalog of faces. The very fact that these creatures can't get even basic features present on the faces they've made means that they aren't anything like us at all, and I mean from their very origin and evolution."

The two stood in silence watching the alien couple. Both male and female were struggling with their bonds, but there was no chance. No one, except maybe sailors and boy scouts, could tie knots like a fair worker. Eventually, the two managed to wiggle a hand around close enough to touch the other's, and they settled down.

"Is that how they communicate, I wonder? Through touch?" Pandora asked.

"Hmm," the Doctor responded, watching the whole thing with keen interest. "That's been my theory. Perhaps in their native form they have antennae or something, and this is the closest they've got in human form. You said that's how you they were, when you first saw them, right? Holding hands?"

"Yeah, but lots of people do that. I didn't really think anything of it," Pandora confirmed.

While the Doctor was musing, the police arrived and the Doctor broke off mid-sentence. He approached them, flipping open his psychic paper. "The Doctor, Interpol, Special Circuses and Travelling Fairs."

He put the psychic paper in his hoodie pocket and snapped his fingers, pointing at the seated couple. "We need these people placed in custody. I'll need an interrogation room where I can interview them properly. And we'll need restraints as well. They are stronger than they look. And make sure you have enough, there are five more in their gang. Did I forget anything, Pandora?"

"Keep them separated. We don't want them communicating," she said.

"Pandora Jones, undercover operative. One of our finest," the Doctor said by way of introduction. "She uncovered the ring."

While the police busied themselves untying the couple and placing them under arrest, the Doctor and Pandora stood back to let them do their job. "I need to find some way to communicate with them. Find out why they are here, and what they want."

"Yeah," Pandora added, "and why they have to mutilate those people to get it."

"Exactly!" the Doctor said. "Something about that just doesn't make sense. I feel like I'm missing something, maybe something obvious."

Blaise entered the area at that point, and when he saw the Doctor and Pandora off by themselves, he made a bee-line for them. "I just wanted to let you know that we gaff-taped some blankets over the mirrors. We won't have any more accidents with them."

"Good. Um, well done," the Doctor said.

"And the faire is closing down for the day, so I thought maybe I could hang out with you two. I think I can help, you know, if things get physical again. But mostly, I just want to help."

The Doctor regarded him shrewdly. It seemed obvious to him that Blaise wanted to be where Pandora was more than he actually wanted to help, but on the other hand, he could see in him that spark of the extraordinary, that recognition that this is a chance to be a part of something world-changingly big. Most people when they see that, they look the other way and do what they can to continue with life as normal, pretending that it is. Blaise was the sort who would always regret having been so close but not see it through. Also, there was the fact that the last time they left him on his own he did something monumentally stupid. "Alright. Good to have you Blaise. Pandora, will you fill him in while I talk to the police?"

"'Fill him in'? What do you mean? How much should I tell him?" Pandora asked, giving the Doctor a conspiratorial look.

The Doctor smiled broadly. "Tell him everything. If he does the smart thing and runs, we'll know he wasn't right for the job."

With that, he turned and walked over to the Police.

Once they had finally resorted to cutting the ropes rather than try to untie them, they'd gotten the couple separated. The moment they did that, the couple became violent again, the male taking swings at anything without reach, and the woman clawing at anyone who touched her. The police managed to tackle them both to the ground and cuff their hands behind their backs about the time the Doctor approached them.

"What's the mysterious 'fill me in'?" Blaise asked.

Pandora sighed. Alright, he said everything. "The Doctor is an alien, okay? Some sort of alien detective. He knows a lot about stuff like this, and he has a time travelling spaceship - Only, it's not letting him in right now, so that's a thing. In the few months I've known him, we've stopped a giant psychic spider from taking over the world, we travelled to another world to return children's souls to them, and we made a big old asteroid pass through the Earth instead of destroying England, just to stop a time travelling art thief."

Pandora took a deep breath and continued. "The Doctor thinks these are creatures from another dimension that are so alien they don't know what faces even look like and that these aren't their normal forms, they're just trying to look like us. All the other victims will have faceless duplicates too. He wants to find out how to communicate so we can figure out why they're here and what they want."

She paused, thinking back over everything she said. "Yeah, I think that's you, filled in."

"Wow," Blaise said. "That's a lot to process. I'm in though - let me just say that up front, but... wow." He paced back and forth several steps with Pandora watching him for any response. He stopped and turned to her. "But you're human, right?"

Pandora smiled warmly. "Yeah, I'm human. Just a normal Earth girl, living on the streets of London. I like chips and ska and Arsenal, I don't like people who smoke and I hate people who pretend to be nice just because they want something."

"Is he on board? We're all good then?" the Doctor asked as he approached. "Good. I've got us a ride to the station. We're going to interview the male."

* * *

The Doctor's cover story for Blaise was that he was a relative of one of the victims, and until they knew whether these violent, faceless people were in any way related to the victims, he was going to stick around to advocate for them. This was enough to get him into the station, but not enough for the interrogation room. He watched the Doctor and Pandora conduct the interview from the other side of the mirrored glass along with a police observer.

The Doctor and Pandora waited in the room while one officer brought in a folding chair for Pandora, and a second officer pulled in the faceless male, now in a straightjacket. He forced him into a metal chair on the other side of the table, then attached a length of chain to a loop on the back of the jacket, and ran it down to a metal loop on the wall behind him.

"I don't know what you expect to get out of him, I don't think he can talk, and he's got the best poker face I've ever seen," the officer said and the second one chuckled.

"Thank you officers. That'll do," the Doctor said. The two turned to leave the room, but just before the door closed, the Doctor caught it and said, "Oh, and when my delivery arrives, please have someone bring it in."

The officer shut the door, leaving the Doctor and Pandora alone with the faceless man. The Doctor sat down at the table, folding his hands in front of him.

"My name's the Doctor. What may I call you?" he asked. As he expected, he got no response. The creature continued to try to free his arms from the straightjacket.

The Doctor unzipped his hoodie and pulled out his sonic and a cell phone that Pandora didn't recognize. He placed them both on the table between himself and the creature, then he hit the power button on the phone. The lock screen came up showing a young couple in a hot air balloon. They were both wearing sunglasses and their faces were close together for a quick selfie on a romantic outing. Even with the sunglasses and without the distorted faces, Pandora could recognize the couple, mostly because of the blonde hair piled high.

She leaned in close to the Doctor, whispering, "I can't believe you nicked their phone."

"I... acquired it while we were on the ambulance. I knew I'd need a way to contact them later." The Doctor pointed his sonic at the phone and it unlocked. He quickly looked through the contacts list and recent texts, then he returned his attention to the faceless man.

"Is it alright if I call you Steve then?" He held up the phone displaying the photo from the contact card titled 'Husband'. "That is you, isn't it? Or at least the person you are pretending to be? Got it a bit wrong about the face though, here," he said circling the entire face area. The creature didn't react to the name or the phone. He never pointed his 'face' toward it, he just continued to pull at the jacket, trying to get enough slack to pull an arm up his sleeve.

The Doctor gave up on the phone and set it down, picking up the sonic instead. He pointed it at the creature and examined him. He got up from the table and went to stand next to it, bent down close and activated the sonic again. Still no response. "Curious," the Doctor said and returned to his chair.

"Did you learn something?" Pandora asked.

"Well, it's obvious he can't see or hear. I know you're thinking of course not, he hasn't got eyes or ears, but you'd be surprise how little of a liability that can sometimes be. But I would have expected some reaction. And the examination showed that he's got the holes in his skull associated with ears and nose, just no external organs. Nothing for the eyes or mouth, just solid bone across both."

"That's something I've been wondering," Pandora said. "Without nostrils or a mouth, how does he breath?"

"In my experience, the people who ask questions like that rarely want to actually know the answers. Let's go with the best case scenario - he doesn't need to."

There was a knock on the door moments before it opened. The Doctor and Pandora reflexively looked toward it, but the creature gave no sign it was aware of any change to his surroundings. One of the officers from before came in carrying a white paper bag.

"Ah, thank you so much, Dodson," the Doctor said, accepting it from him. The Doctor opened the bag and pulled out a thermos bottle. Officer Dodson left the room again, closing the door behind himself.

"Yunjin Kwon of Upminster," the Doctor said, holding up the thermos. "Makes the finest kimchi in London."

"You come all the way out to Upminster to get kimchi?" Pandora asked.

"That's not so far, I used to go out all the way to Caldrasa Six to get popadums," he said. He twisted open the thermos, and immediately the interrogation room filled with the unique pungent odor of well-fermented kimchi cabbage. He waved the thermos in front of the faceless creature, but it neither pulled away, nor reacted in any other way.

"We've already established he doesn't have a nose. How did you expect him to smell?"

The Doctor set the thermos on the table and screwed the lid on tightly before answering. "I'm resisting the urge to say, 'Terrible'."

He sighed. "Well, that's sight, sound and smell out of the way. There are certain creatures in this vast universe that communicate only via taste, but I don't intend to introduce myself by inserting a finger anywhere. All that's left is touch, and they definitely react to that."

He pushed the table slowly forward until it touched the creature's abdomen. The creature instantly reacted, pushing out his chest and thrashing more violently, but the Doctor put his weight into the table and kept it firmly in contact with the creature until it calmed down. He released the pressure tentatively, but kept the contact, then when the thrashing didn't start back up, he flipped his sonic around and set it tip down on the metal table. He turned to Pandora and said, "Just like I can set the inner-ear bones vibrating to recreate a human voice, I can turn this table into a resonator. Let's see how he reacts to different patterns of vibration. We may be able to set up a basis for communication."

With that, he turned on his sonic. The table vibrated hard enough to scoot slowly along the floor. The creature reacted violently, standing up and pushing the table forward. He lunged toward the Doctor, coming to the limits of his chain, and began thrashing about. The Doctor and Pandora got to their feet and backed up as the creature kicked at the table. The Doctor scooped up the phone just before it went flying, while the thermos tipped and rolled off the table, clattering to the floor.

The creature backed up and ran forward again and again. The loop of fabric holding the chain in place ripped free, and simultaneously, the creature got one arm loose enough to pull it back and over his head. The Doctor got between the creature and Pandora and backed her into a corner.

The creature charged, seemingly blindly, but directly at them. Half way through his charge, the door to the room burst open, and he slammed into it instead of them.

Two officers ran into the room wielding clubs. One swung low and took out the back of the creature's knee, forcing it to a kneeling position. The second officer grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the ground and put a knee in the small of his back.

The Doctor grabbed Pandora's hand and led her quickly out of the room. They nearly ran into the police captain in the hallway. "Just what the hell was that?" she demanded, arms folded across her chest.

"Just trying to set up a basis for communication. I didn't expect such a violent reaction," the Doctor said.

"Well, some job you did too! If that creature can figure out a way to file a complaint against Interpol, my officers will happily take it. I want your whole group out of my station."

Blaise joined them, and the three were escorted out of the building. "You can keep the kimchi!" the Doctor called to the closing door.

"What next?" Blaise asked.

"We split up. Their reaction to any sense of touch is violence. What if the first thing they are supposed to do when they get here is to kill their double and take their place? We still have five Faceless unaccounted for." He handed the victim's phone to Pandora. "I want you to go to their home and make sure they're okay."

"What will you be doing?" Pandora asked, taking the phone.

The Doctor sighed heavily. "I have no other choice left. There is no basis for communication with these creatures in their assumed form. If I'm to talk to them, it isn't going to happen here. I have to meet them on their home turf. I'm heading back to the faire, pulling back that tape and finding a way through."

Pandora's face went white. "Doctor, how can you risk-"

The Doctor took her by the hands and said quietly, "I have to. Who knows what those other five are doing right now. And they'll eventually find another way to our dimension if they haven't already. At this point I don't even know if I want to stop them. What if their world is dying, and our world is their only escape?"

"You mean, _our_ world, right?" Blaise said, coming to stand next to Pandora.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"Pandora said you're an alien. I don't know where you're from, but it isn't here, and you're offering our world to another alien race."

"That's not fair Blaise," Pandora said.

"More to the point, it's incorrect. I'm not giving them forty acres and a mule, I'm talking about rescuing a dying species and finding a place for them later. But either way it's hypothetical until I discover the reasons behind all this.

"You can get their address from the phone's contact info. You'll have to check with the hospital for the other victims. Once you know they're safe, call me." With that, the Doctor left them.

* * *

Pandora and Blaise weaved their way through the housing development until, in late evening, Pandora stopped in front of one particular suburban two-story Tudor-esqe house with a tree out front and an attached garage.

"This it?" Blaise asked.

Pandora double-checked the number against the address on the cell phone. "That's the one." She turned off the phone and put it in her jacket pocket. "Let's go," she said and approached the door.

She lifted the knocker, then paused. The door was slightly ajar. She looked back at Blaise, and pushed on the door with one finger. It slowly and smoothly opened, stopping gently when it it touched the doorstop.

They peered into the dark hallway, then looked back at the rest of the neighborhood where lights had come on in all the houses hours ago.

"We should call the Doctor," Pandora said.

"No," Blaise said, pushing past her. "What if something bad happened while we waited?" He started off down the hallway, then turned and looked back at her.

Pandora stood in the doorway. Her right hand absently came up to touch the spot near her temple where she'd had a clump of hair ripped out earlier in the day. She swallowed hard and tentatively stepped into the hallway.

She found the light switch and flipped it up, but no lights came on. She toggled it on and off several times, but nothing happened.

"Hey," Blaine whispered to her. Pandora looked over to find him pointing up. She looked up to see the light fixture on the ceiling, bulbs missing. "And then there's this," he said, pointing at a hole in the wall, wires exposed.

Blaine turned and walked into the kitchen, Pandora hurried to catch up. Blaise found a knife block and removed the biggest one. Pandora let out a slight gasp and he turned.

"Please don't stab anyone. I can't stand blood."

"I won't," he said, hiding it away by his side. "It's just for show... In case."

Pandora pulled a half frown, then looked around the rest of the room. There was a cooktop island in the middle of the room and a small breakfast nook on the other side. Both had lighting hanging above them, but all the bulbs had been removed. The microwave and toaster had been gutted, and the dishwasher and refrigerator were pulled out from the counter and stripped. Similarly there was an electric can opener sitting in pieces on the table in the breakfast nook.

"No signs of blood," Blaine whispered. "No broken glass."

Pandora glanced around to verify his conclusion, then took out her cell phone. She switched on the flashlight app and held it out in front of her, walking from room to room. In the dining room, there was a small pendulum clock, smashed and dissected. In the family room, the television was lying on the floor with the backing off, parts strewn about. She headed back into the hallway and pointed the beam of the cell phone's camera flash upstairs. She jumped when she found Blaise at her side.

"I'll go first," he whispered, and started up the stairs. Pandora followed cautiously, hyper-aware of every creak they made on the stairs.

The upstairs was in a similar state to the ground floor. In the bathroom, the electric toothbrushes and shaver had been taken apart, and the fluorescent tubes running along either side of the bathroom mirror were empty. In the bedroom, it was the bedside alarm clock, the television and the display from the elliptical machine. There were holes in the walls again but there were no bodies or other signs of violence.

"That's it, I'm calling the Doctor," Pandora whispered. She pulled her phone out of her bag and rang him up quickly, but it went to voicemail. Normally, she would have just hung up, but this time she felt she had to leave a message. "Doctor, it's Pandora. We're at Steve and Jessica's house, but they're not home, the door was open, and the place is wrecked. Everything electronic has been ripped apart. I think they've been taken -"

"Hey!" Blaise called. He was standing by the window, looking out the back.

"Just call me back, Doctor," Pandora said and hung up the phone. "What is it?" she asked Blaise.

"I saw something. A light. It was out there past those trees." She came over to join him at the window. She could see the dark shape of the trees just past the backyard fence, but no lights.

"It looked like a shower of sparks or something," he continued. "There it is again!" he said, pointing.

That time she saw it. "What's out that way?" she asked.

"Cranham Marsh, I think," Blaise said. "I bet it's related."

"I'm starting not to believe in coincidence," Pandora said.

"Let's go," Blaise said. By the time Pandora turned away from the window, he was half way down the stairs.

* * *

The two went out through the back door and through the yard, over the fence and across a field. They slowed down and crouched low when they approached the tree line. They were now seeing flashes of light from multiple directions, but all beyond the tree line. They could hear the sounds of tools and of electricity arcing.

They crept through the underbrush and peeked between some branches. More than a dozen figures, their faces and bodies thoroughly distorted, were working, constructing some large curved device. One was pounding metal into shape, another two were welding pieces together. The rest were sorting pieces, ferrying them to their final location and connecting them up. It wasn't obvious what they were putting together, but it was enormous.

It looked as if the completed artifact would be a circle, a meter high and a hundred meters around. Light bulbs of all sorts lit the interior of the curve with no sign of a power source.

"How did there get to be so many of them?" Pandora asked, a little louder than she'd have liked. "I thought you taped it down when there were just seven of them?"

"I did," Blaise said, but Pandora looked at him skeptically. "I _swear_ I did!"

Pandora nodded and went back to watching them. "What's that noise?" she asked. "Not the tools, or the welding, but that... clicking sound?"

Blaise turned his head slightly to listen. "Oh, yeah. I didn't hear it at first. It's like... insects or something."

"Oh, my god, is that them... talking?"

The two crouched there in silence, watching the group work, until Pandora turned around and sat with her back against a tree.

"What would you do if you suddenly lost all your senses? But not just your senses, your face, your very identity?" She looked up at Blaise to be sure he was listening. "You'd cling to whatever you could. You couldn't scream, you couldn't cry, you'd be frantic. You'd be filled with adrenaline, but absolutely impotent. If you felt a hand - another human being... Your entire world would be that connection, and you would do anything to hold onto it."

"In other words," Blaise said, catching on, "you'd act just like the Faceless."

Pandora nodded silently, looking up at Blaise with worry in her eyes. "What if we got it backwards, and these are the invaders, and the Faceless are the victims?"

"I think you might be right. These guys sure aren't acting human."

Suddenly Pandora heard a new noise, and her head snapped up. It was a unique noise, and one she was very familiar with. She went deadly pale and spun around to look at the group again.

A new figure had joined the group, its face elongated, with dirty blonde hair, tiny eyes and a long nose over a square jaw. He had long upper-arms and a strong barrel chest, but very short abdomen and upper-legs. His lower-arms and legs were barely even there, but he was instantly recognizable in his grey hoodie and khaki cargo pants. The sound she'd heard was the sonic screwdriver he was using to help the distorted figures assemble their device.

One of those things had replicated the Doctor.


	3. The Conduit

Pandora grabbed Blaise by the collar and pulled him away from the gathering. She stopped when they got to the edge of the tree line and turned around, anger and fear in her eyes.

"You keep an eye on them. I've got to find the Doctor. You still got that knife?"

"Yeah," Blaise said timidly, pulling it out to show her.

"Good. One of those things comes near you, you cut them. Got it?"

"Yeah, I've got it."

Pandora pointed a finger at him warningly. "Don't you let them out of your sight, and don't let them take you," she said, then she turned and left without looking back.

She went back over the field, then skirted the fence lining the row of houses to the North and cut across the farmland at a quick walking pace. She was heading straight for the faire, heedless of the damage being done to her Ugg boots or the hem of her long skirt as she trudged through muddy fields.

When she got to the faire, she ducked between the ropes and kept walking past the caravans and toward the booths that were between her and the funhouse.

Dogs began barking the alarm, and for the first time Pandora felt conspicuous in her trespassing. She stopped and looked both ways. In the dim starlight, she couldn't make out much, but around the deep shadow of one of the caravans appeared the silhouette of a trio of dogs, running full tilt toward her.

Pandora turned the other way and ran, looking for something she could climb on, but she didn't have a chance as the first of the dogs caught up with her in moments.

It began jumping up around her and whining. With great relief, Pandora realized it was Obelix. She reached out and grabbed him by the muzzle, scrunching up the skin behind his ears. "You scared the life out of me boy," she said.

The two other dogs slowed to a stop just behind the two of them. If she was okay with Obelix, apparently she was okay with them too. "Kom," Pandora commanded.

All three dogs came to heel and followed her as she continued on her way to the funhouse. She could hear activity behind her now, faire workers woken by the dogs' barking, but she continued on, and was surprised not to find any guards outside the funhouse itself. Just as she was about to enter, she had a mental image of the dogs stretched out and distorted when they passed in front of the mirror. She stopped and turned to the dogs, who looked up at her expectantly.

"Sitta," she said in a commanding voice. Obelix instantly dropped onto his haunches, and upon seeing what he did, the other two dogs, dobermans both, sat down too. "Bo," she commanded, turned and went inside.

She had to stop in the first room and turn the flashlight app of her phone on again, as even the low lighting of the funhouse was currently switched off. She made her way quickly to the mirror room.

There was a light on in the mirror room, and she could see the movement of shadows inside. She approached with caution and peered in through the doorway. She found the Swede holding a blanket over the mirror, while another of the faire workers taped it into place. There was a lantern sitting on the floor behind them. Both of them looked toward Pandora when they heard the sloshy footfalls approach.

The Swede smiled weakly when he saw her, then returned to his task. "If you've come looking for the Doctor, you are too late. We found one of those faceless things dressed like him wandering around the faire about an hour ago. The police have it now. We came back here and found the blankets down. Guards were gone too. Gonna be sure they get fired."

Pandora stepped inside and turned off the light of her phone. "I'm pretty sure that faceless thing _was_ the Doctor," she said.

The Swede looked back over his shoulder again. "Oh," he said with only slight surprise. "Maybe that explains why it acted so different than the others."

"What do you mean?" Pandora asked.

The worker finished with the tape, and the Swede stepped tentatively back. When the blanket didn't immediately fall, he nodded and put a hand heavily on the worker's shoulder. He turned around and addressed Pandora, hands on his hips. "Well, it didn't grab nobody. Come to think on it, it didn't struggle at all. Even when the cops were putting him in cuffs. No struggle, I'd even say he went willingly. Hmm," he said.

They were all silent for a while, neither Pandora nor the Swede knowing what to do next, and the other worker just looking on uncomfortably.

"Well, Georges," the Swede finally said, "you should get to sleep. We'll post some more guards, I'll get Pandora some tea or maybe something stronger, and she tell me everything. You know, I think weird things happen around you now, Pandora. No one lost faces here until you and him come by."

"No," Pandora said. "Well, I mean yes, you're right. At least it seems that way, but I'm going to skip the tea. I've got to get to the police station and talk to him."

"Suit yourself, Pandora, but I don't think he talks so much now."

"I've still got to try," Pandora said. The three of them headed toward the exit.

Just as they got to the doorway, Georges remembered the lantern and ran back to grab it. Pandora and the Swede waited at the door while he picked it up and turned to head back to them, but then he got an odd look on his face. He turned back and held the lantern up toward the other doorway. "Did you guys hear..." he said, and began heading toward the entrance.

Just before he got there, someone else entered the room. He was dressed in the security t-shirt of a faire worker, but his features were that of the horribly distorted. He reached out before Georges could react, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him in to wrap both arms around him. Georges dropped the lantern.

Two others stepped into the room, holding the unconscious forms of two teenage kids.

"You let go of him!" the Swede yelled. He began marching across the room, massive hands tucked into fists.

Pandora wrapped both arms around one of his and tugged backward as hard as she could. "No! Don't!" she yelled.

The Swede stopped, and looked at Pandora, disbelief and lack of understanding mixing with the anger that was still there. "What?" he shouted.

The distorted security man watched Pandora out of the corner of his elongated eyes. He emitted a series of quick clicks and a sound like a rolling 'r' which was echoed by the other two behind him.

Pandora kept yanking on the Swedes arm, trying to pull him toward the exit, but barely managing to move his arm. "There's nothing you can do! We have to go!"

The Swede looked back toward the alien creatures. the one holding the struggling Georges reached out a tiny arm and yanked the blanket down off the mirrors. The other two approached, all three of them watching the Swede and Pandora.

"Please!" Pandora begged.

The Swede took a step backward, unable to tear his eyes away from what was happening. Sparks began to swirl around Georges and the kids. The two aliens set them down on their feet. Suddenly the sparks circled their heads, then streaked down to the ground. There was a bare moment where it looked like Georges and the kids were gone, then in less time than it took to blink, they were back, but distorted, their features matching exactly their reflections.

"Go! Now!" Pandora yelled. This time, the Swede moved. The two turned and ran for the exit. They got out and down the stairs, continuing to run until they were out in the open.

They stopped and turned to watch the exit. The Swede whistled, high and loud, and the dogs came running to stand by his side. They were on guard, growling softly, ears pointed.

The creatures never came out this way.

The Swede sounded the alarm, and the entire camp was roused. Eventually, figures were reportedly seen trudging across the farmland away from the faire.

Pandora squeezed the Swede's hand. "I've got to go. We need the Doctor." She let go and ran off.

* * *

Pandora was panting with effort when she got to the police station. As she was reaching for the door, she suddenly had a moment of doubt that quickly turned into panic.

Earlier in the day she and the Doctor had been kicked out of the station, and now she didn't have any ID, not even the psychic paper. Her credentials were a fraud and as a runaway, the police were actually looking for her. What if they wouldn't let her see the faceless prisoner? What if they demanded her ID? How would she talk her way out of it? She knew there were security cameras in there; what if they identified her? Or even wanted fingerprints?

She put her arm down and walked away, forcing herself to breath calmly. It was probably a whole different set of cops on night shift than were there earlier, she told herself. That helped. Maybe she could talk her way in there. What would the Doctor do? she asked herself. Well, he wouldn't show any doubt for one thing. If this was the right thing to do, and it was, then do it. He'd also make it up as he went along. No sense in coming up with a script, the person on the other side of the conversation wouldn't have one.

She found she'd been pacing, and she stopped herself. He breathing was normal and she felt more relaxed. She looked down at herself. She was sweating from the heat and her exertion, and she was covered with mud and probably worse. "Well, Pandora," she said out loud, "This is the best the world is going to get, and it needs you now." She pulled a hair-tie off her arm and did up her hair, then marched back to the door and threw it wide.

There was a balding red-headed man in uniform behind the counter doing paperwork. She approached him purposefully. "A faceless man in a grey hoodie and cargo pants was brought in here an hour ago. I need to see him. I'll take him in Interrogation Room One." She started past the desk.

"Hey!" he yelled, standing up and leaning over the counter. "Who the hell are you, missy?"

She stopped and turned. A feigned look of surprise and offense on her face. "Pandora Jones, Interpol, Circuses and Traveling Fairs. Undercover, otherwise I'd show you my ID."

"Aren't you a little young for Interpol?" he asked.

Pandora laughed, one hard barking syllable of a laugh. "That's kind," she said, then her demeanor changed. "Condescending, but kind."

The officer reacted as if he'd been slapped. "Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am. One faceless John Doe for Interrogation Room One. Getting to be a lot of them now."

"I only need the one," she called over her shoulder. Her knees suddenly gave out for a moment, but she caught herself before she fell and she walked down the hallway toward the interrogation rooms.

Minutes after she got there, the faceless man she hoped was the Doctor was brought in wearing a straightjacket over an orange jumpsuit. "I'll need his effects as well," Pandora said.

The officer who brought him in looked quite put out by that, but said nothing. He led his prisoner to the chair and helped him to sit. He ran the chain from the back of the man's collar to the brace on the floor and left.

Pandora paced back and forth while she waited for the officer to return with the Doctor's effects. In the meantime, the prisoner sat calmly, not put off one bit by the straightjacket he was wearing. He faced the table and didn't move in the slightest. Pandora's gaze searched him, looking for any confirmation of her suspicions. Just the slightest hint of his personality coming through... But there was nothing. What could there be? She thought about the way the Doctor would flip up his hoodie when he was uncomfortable, but he had no hoodie. He would also bite his nails when he was deep in thought, but this creature had no mouth to bite with, and his arms were trussed around behind him.

Pandora turned away and breathed deeply. She simply couldn't be sure. She would have to trust.

The door opened up, and Pandora turned around. Something of her uncertainty must have shown on her face, because the officer paused halfway to handing her a gallon zip 'n' cloze bag of the Doctor's possessions. Pandora reached out instead and took it from him. The officer gave Pandora a penetrating look, but then held up two more gallon bags.

Pandora frowned and set the first bag on the table, then accepted the other two. "Thank you," she said. "You can go."

He looked from her to the faceless man, then said, "I'll be watching from observation," he said, indicating the mirror, then he left the room.

She set one of the bags on the table, then turned the other over and over, looking for the sonic screwdriver. There was a yo-yo, a bag of marbles, a paper sailor's hat, a tiny nub of a pencil with its rubber intact, a paperback copy of 'Kim's Game' and a dozen other odds and ends, but no sonic.

She set down the bag and picked up the next one. She found a troll doll with bright green hair, a key she assumed was for the Tardis, his mobile phone, a plastic squeeze coin purse, a deck of cards, a harmonica, and there under it all, his sonic screwdriver. She opened the back and pulled out the sonic, then walked to the door and used the sonic to lock the door. She looked nervously toward the mirror, but there was no turning back now. She walked around behind the faceless Doctor and set the sonic between her teeth to undo the leather straps holding his arms behind his back.

There was a pounding on the silvered glass, but Pandora held up one hand and tentatively stood up.

The faceless Doctor slowly flexed his arms, then folded his hands on the table in front of him. Pandora pulled the sonic out from between her teeth with a smile, then turned to the mirror and gave a thumbs up. She walked around the table and stood in front of the Doctor.

She leveled the sonic at him and tried to remember what color the light was when he'd done that inner-ear trick at the bank. Blue, she thought. Definitely blue. She switched it on and thought, "Nod if you can hear me."

No response. She clicked the rear of the sonic left one position and tried again. He nodded.

"What can I do for you?" she thought.

He raised his arms and dangled the long ends of his sleeves.

She walked around around to his left arm and pulled the sleeve back until his hand showed. He set his hand on the table and mimed writing.

Pandora went quickly back to the effects bag and pulled out the tiny stub of pencil and looked around for paper. Finding none, she regretfully tore out a page of 'Kim's Game' and slipped it under his right sleeve. She placed the pencil in his hand and stepped back.

He began writing quickly, but neatly, hunched over the paper as if he were able to see it despite his lack of eyes. Pandora came around to view it over his shoulder.

It was a list of some sort. 'Blender cowling' was the first item, followed by 'Cathode ray gun' and 'Incandescent bulb'. The Doctor continued with the list, in a penmanship that bordered on calligraphy in its precision. The list was filled with parts from various electronic devices. It reminded Pandora of the disassembled appliances all over Steve and Jessica's house. Thinking back, it seemed so long ago, but it was only a few hours.

Pandora pointed the sonic at the Doctor and thought, "You want me to bring those to you?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Those distorted people from before; they're the aliens, and they're up to something. They're building something, and they're making more like them."

The Doctor pushed the paper forward and tapped it.

"Okay, I'll be back," Pandora thought at the Doctor. She picked up the paper, sonicked the door unlocked, and left.

On her way out, she stopped at the front desk and got the officer's attention. "The man in interrogation room 1 - he stays there until I return, got it?"

"Whatever you say, ma'am," the officer said.

Pandora turned to leave, then something else occurred to her and she turned back. "Oh, and we've got it backward. These faceless ones are the victims. They're still a danger to themselves and others, so keep them here, but they're in protective custody now, not prisoners, yeah?"

The officer nodded, but grumbled something under his breath.

Close enough, Pandora thought, and left the station.

* * *

"How the hell am I going to get all this?" Pandora asked herself, standing in front of an electronics store at 3:00 in the morning.

Even if she managed to use the sonic to pull from the cash point like the Doctor did, she'd have to break into the store to get everything. She thought about all the security cameras in the store and turned the sonic over in her hand. She had no idea how to turn the cameras off. She made a mental note that once she got the Doctor back to normal she was going to make him show her how to use the sonic.

She read the list again. How was she even going to carry it all back? This task was starting to look insurmountable. She walked up to the glass doors and peered inside. There, tantalizingly close, were the blenders. But out of the corner of her eye, she could see the blinking red light of a security camera and she stepped quickly back away from the doors.

She was feeling like a failure before she even began. There was no way she could do what the Doctor could effortlessly. She sat down on the curb to feel sorry for herself, but just as her rear hit the concrete, she realized what her mistake was. She bounced back up immediately.

She shouldn't be trying to be the Doctor at all. How would she normally go about getting something she needed? In other words, what would Pandora do? The answer was obvious: With a little help from her friends.

She began walking with renewed purpose.

That was the only way to survive on the streets after all, she thought. To develop a network of people who you could trust, and who were good for you. She'd come to rely heavily on the Swede, and she knew he was nearby. He knew how to get things, and he knew even more people than she did..

* * *

"I'm sorry to wake you," Pandora said when the Swede sleepily joined her outside the RV he was staying in while the faire was in town. "I mean, wake you again."

"Don't worry about it, pet. Most of us are still up and watching the funhouse to keep those creatures out. What do you need?" he yawned.

She handed over the list and the Swede stepped under the lamp post to read it. "Yeah... I think we can find all this stuff. How big does the cathode ray gun need to be?"

Pandora threw up her hands. "Hell if I know. I'm not even sure what that is," she admitted.

"It's part of the old tellies. The ones with the big chunk of glass in front. I've got a little one, like that," he said, holding out his hands just a few inches apart. "Mickey's got an old blender he never uses. Someone here will have the rest."

"You are a real life saver. Only, I need them tonight. As soon as possible."

"Then, you make some coffee, and I'll start grabbing people."

* * *

Half an hour later, she was back at the police station pulling a wagon loaded with two cardboard boxes filled with assorted electronic parts. The desk sergeant stood as she came in dragging the wagon, but Pandora passed the desk without saying a word, and by the time he thought of anything to say, she was gone.

The interrogation room was just as she'd left it, with the Doctor sitting calmly at the table, left arm out of the straightjacket sleeve and his other sleeve dangling well past his hand.

Pandora looked at his blank face for a while before reaching into the wagon and transferring one box to the table, then the other. She turned the Doctor's hand palm up and placed the sonic screwdriver in it. He clenched it tightly, then turned it over in his hand, slipping his index finger through the ring.

Pandora walked around to the other side and helped him get his hand out of the sleeve, then lifted it to place it inside the nearest box.

The Doctor set down the sonic, and reached inside the right-side box with both hands, feeling each item within it. Once he'd touched them all, he moved the box to the floor on his right side. He repeated the process with the box on the left, setting it on the left hand side when he was done. He then picked up his sonic and reached inside the right-hand box, pulling out the toaster. He worked on it until he had just the thermo-regulator, then swept all the other pieces off the table and picked out the blender cowling from the left-hand box.

He acted with precision, as if he'd memorized where each item was within each box and wasted no more time or effort searching for anything. He reached into each box, pulled out an item, grabbed his sonic and welded it onto the overall structure. He pulled out the next piece, broke it and removed the parts he needed, adding it to the mass on the table. After several minutes of this, he grabbed the cord and felt along its length until he found the plug. He held it up and rapped on the table. Then he held up his sonic with the other hand.

Pandora accepted the sonic and clicked through the settings until she had the blue light again and aimed at the Doctor. "You want me to plug this in?" He nodded. She found a socket and plugged it in.

The device on the table hummed, and it radiated an odd glow. It was like watching an explosion in a slow-motion film. The glow extended slowly outward until it came into contact with the Doctor and passed through him. The skin on his face stretched and twisted as it passed over him. Pin pricks on the surface of his face widened into actual features. A small spot in the lower center of his face widened into a mouth and moments later had all the details of lips and chin and five o'clock shadow. In a matter of seconds, he was back to normal. The glow continued to extend slowly toward the walls of the room, but suddenly the contraption sparked and banged and shut down, taking the lights of the station with it.

"No time to lose," the Doctor said, taking his sonic back. He used it to remove the chain from the back of his collar, then he shimmied out of the straight jacket. He looked down at the god-awful jumpsuit they'd dressed him in and patted it down. "No pockets," he observed with horror.

Pandora pulled open one of the bags containing his effects and removed his hoodie. She held it out to the Doctor.

"It'll have to do," he said and threw it on over the orange jumpsuit.

"I've missed you," Pandora said.

The Doctor smiled warmly. "And you," he said. He gave her a quick hug, then put his sonic in his inside hoodie pocket, snatched up all three effects bags, and headed for the door.

As they left the police station, Pandora grabbed the Doctor's arm to stop him. "What about all the other Faceless?"

The Doctor paused for just a moment, then said with certainty, "They'll be fine where they are. Either sending the extra-dimensionals back will free them, or we'll do it afterward." He set a fast pace walking away from the station, and Pandora hurried to keep up.

He dug through one of the bags with the other two firmly squeezed under his elbow, and he dug out his cell phone. "How do you get ahold of the Swede when you need to?" he asked Pandora over his shoulder.

"Mainly I just go where I know he will be and talk to him. I've got his number now though, if that's what you are asking, why?"

"Because I need to. This ends tonight."

Pandora pulled up her contacts and showed the Swede's entry to the Doctor. "They're building something in the marsh outside the housing development. Something huge," she said as they walked.

"Describe it to me," the Doctor said.

"I couldn't really say. It was large and curved, and made from all of their appliances and stuff. It had lots of light bulbs too. Oh, and it wasn't close to finished, but it looked like it would make a circle when it was."

"That would be a conduit. A doorway between our world and theirs. A dangerous and ill-advised tear in the fabric of the universe. Lead the way."

"But that's the same thing as the mirrors, right? Only bigger," Pandora asked.

"No, it's nothing like the mirrors. With those, it's a two-way operation. They need to replace a certain quantity of mass to transfer anything here. Someone standing in front of the mirror gets scanned, and the extra-dimensionals are transformed to duplicate what they see. Only what they see is distorted by the mirror. They steal the victims face in the process. Then the two swap places. The aliens come here and the victims go to their world. Except, it's like pushing through a rubber sheet. It wants to snap back, and it takes a force of will to stay on the wrong side. The victims get pulled back to our world." The Doctor turned around to see if Pandora was keeping up. She nodded at him and motioned for him to go on.

He turned back around and started dialing. "The conduit is completely different. When it opens, it will stay open. Those creatures will be able to come through in their true form, and believe me, you do not want that. They will flood into this world, bringing their tech with them, and they will devour it as they have their own."

"Were you able to communicate with them when you were on their side?" Pandora asked.

The Doctor gave her a grim look, then spoke into his wireless earpiece. "Hello, Swede? This is the Doctor. I need your help."

* * *

They approached the tree line and Pandora pointed out the spot where Blaise was still hunkered down amongst the brush.

Blaise started when he heard them, but sighed with relief when he saw who it was. "I'm dying out here," he whispered when they got close. "I think they're finished, or nearly." He looked the Doctor up and down, then added, "Weirdest thing happened to your doppleganger. About half an hour ago he was just working there with the rest of them when some sort of hole appeared behind him and he just got sucked through."

The Doctor nodded enthusiastically. "Just as I expected, but it's good to have the confirmation. There's still a connection between each of the victims and these invaders. If we sever the connection, they can't remain in this reality and get pulled back into their own."

The Doctor leveled his phone, where a compass app was displaying. He peered through the trees to where the invaders now stood around a complete circle of metal odds and ends, the inside surface covered in light bulbs. He then turned his back to the clearing and sighted along his phone back the way they had come. "One hundred ninety-six mark two azimuth," he said mysteriously. "Roughly two kilometers. Final distance and ascension to follow."

He turned back to his companions, placing one hand one each one's shoulder. "Wish me luck. No matter what happens now, you _must_ remain hidden. If something happens to me, run. Call UNIT. I've added their number to your contacts. Ask for Kate Stewart. She'll take your call." He gave a final squeeze and left without waiting for a response.

He stepped through gap in the trees and approached the gathered creatures. "Hello, Invaders of Earth!" he yelled out to get their attention. "Welcome! If you'd be so kind as to dismantle your conduit, we can discuss terms of your continued existence in this plane of reality."

The creatures exchanged a series of clicks and low whumps, and several of them broke off to approach the Doctor menacingly.

"Funny thing," the Doctor said, starting to pace, seemingly unconcerned by the approaching invaders. "The Tardis automatically translates any language in existence for me - which has been very useful, speaking to anyone in their native tongue - but she can't make heads or tails of that gibberish you speak. Now, I know you can be understood when you want to be, because I spoke to two of you before. Now might be a good time to communicate."

He approached the edge of the conduit and ran a hand along its upper edge, then he sat down on it. "Real beaut, this, by the way. I don't know if I could've come up with one as quickly as you did, so kudos there."

A group of five of the invaders came to stand in front of him. "Yooou will exssshplain how you came back," the middle one said simply, in the slurring speech pattern his deformed face allowed.

The Doctor looked deep off into the sky, seeming to consider what they said. "No, I rather think I won't." He got up off the conduit and checked his phone, then pushed through the group to resume pacing. "Of course, we can talk about all sorts of things as soon as you dismantle this device. The Earth won't support your population at this time. I can help you find a location to habitate, but only once this threat is resolved." At his furthest from them he mumbled under his breath, "Two mark one one kilometers."

He turned and walked back toward the group. "So what will it be? Are you willing to shut down and accept my resettlement help, or ignore me, invade this world and force me to stop you?"

He stood there, oblivious to the obvious threat, staring at the chest of the one in the center. The creature's bright yellow shirt read 'Security' in tall thin letters. Two of the others wore similar shirts and were of similar size. They spoke to each other in clicks and whumps, and the others around the conduit began making noises too.

The two creatures at the ends of the group confronting the Doctor lunged forward and grabbed him by the arms, holding him fast.

The Doctor didn't struggle to free himself. "You know what I love about this planet?" he asked them. "They based the idea of gravity off the mass of this world so Earth's gravity is just a constant of one. Makes the maths so simple. Ascension thirty-two mark four. Full power, I should think." He gave the invaders his serious face. "Last chance. Stop this invasion, and let me help you."

The creatures continued to hold him tight, and the rest turned to face the conduit. There was a deep humming noise and the bulbs lining the inside of the conduit became painful to look at. The rest of the world seemed to grow darker, and the night became cold as if the light and heat were being drained from the environment to feed the conduit. There was a loud snap, and a leathery brown shape spiraled out from the center of the space inside the conduit all the way to the edge. The surface rippled like cloth, lit by the surrounding bulbs.

"I'll take that as a no," the Doctor said. "Why is it always no?" He trailed off, staring at the shadows moving beneath the surface within the conduit. "Fire," he barely spoke.

Pandora braced herself, then looked over at Blaise who was still watching the conduit, half crouched. Pandora pulled him down and covered his head, holding onto a tree trunk for support. Nothing happened.

"Well, that's done," the Doctor said. "I don't suppose you have Time Lords where you come from. No? Tardises?" He looked from one to another. They gave no response. He tried to break free from their hold so he could pace, but they didn't budge. "During the Time Wars, many Battle Tardises got destroyed, which was a terrible sight to see. Their insides suddenly and violently became their outsides. All those extra dimensions unfolding across reality..." He raised his voice to be sure everyone could hear him. "You may want to turn around. You don't get many chances to see the process in reverse."

The Doctor turned as best he could and looked up into the dark sky. Pandora and Blaise turned to look. The two creatures holding the Doctor followed his gaze. Slowly the rest of the group turned as well.

Something glittered distantly. As they watched, it became obvious it was moving fast and tumbling rapidly. As it spun, and one side of it caught the moonlight it would flash brightly, then disappear. Over and over it did this, slowly increasing in size. Before they could tell quite what it was, they could see it was coming straight for them.

The creatures surrounding the conduit began clicking rapidly and loudly, then they scattered in all directions. The two holding onto the Doctor let go of him and sprinted away. The Doctor found Pandora and Blaise and held out his hands, palms toward them. He had a reassuring look on his face. He then turned and looked back up into the sky, where the funhouse mirror was quickly approaching.

It plummeted toward the ground and passed neatly through the ring of the conduit. The coffee colored surface deformed, becoming a funnel. Several of the bulbs surrounding it burst and winked out. The metal structure screamed as it bent and pulled inward. The creatures who had been running away were dragged backward as if pulled by unseen tethers. They continued to struggle against the pull, looking like deformed mimes walking against the strongest wind ever. Several of them had found something to grab hold of and were hanging horizontally off whatever they had found.

Eventually each of them lost the struggle and flew through the air into the conduit and spun, stretched out, down the funnel. Bulbs continued to explode, sending sparks into the air. The looser bits of metal structure broke loose and fell into the center of the swirling brown event horizon. The rest of the structure continued to shrink as it deformed and collapsed.

The Doctor walked forward to observe it, feeling no pull whatsoever from the object. The last of the creatures lost its grip and got pulled through the barrier between worlds. At that point, the structure gave up all resistance and folded in on itself. With a loud roar and shriek, it collapsed to nothing and disappeared.

The dim light and dull heat of the evening returned instantly. The Doctor watched the spot for a few moments longer, then turned back toward Pandora and Blaise. "That worked a treat," he said into his earpiece. "Thanks." He tapped it to hang up and took the earpiece off. He pulled his hood up, shoved both hands into his hoodie pockets and walked over to join the other two.

* * *

They walked back toward the police station. Blaise was full of questions, and the Doctor filled him in with brief explanations. "...So I had the Swede load the mirrors onto the Human Slingshot. At that point it came down to some basic geometry. As I got the last details, like exact direction and distance, I fed them to him, and his team angled the bungee. Once the invaders turned on the conduit, we passed one opening through the other, and well, you saw. It's a bit like a snake swallowing its own tail. There were no openings left in this world, and they all got pulled back to theirs."

The Doctor stopped and the other two looked at him. He motioned with his head toward the station, just coming into view in the early morning sunrise. "Looks like they're releasing the victims. No need to go any further, everything's back to normal. Everyone's got their faces back. Of course, their houses are trashed. Try explaining that one to insurance." He sighed deeply and looked to the other two. "Only congratulations or blame lie in that direction, and I want none of either. If you guys are interested, go ahead. I'm heading back home."

"The Faire is my home for the weekend," Blaise said, "Assuming it hasn't been closed down, of course." He was looking at Pandora hesitantly, though she didn't see. "Um..." he started to say, but got no further.

The Doctor smiled knowingly. "You know what? It's a long walk back to Paddington, but I need to clear my head. Pandora, how about you walk Blaise back to the faire and take the Tube back? I'll see you in the morning."

Blaise looked grateful, but his expression quickly changed to 'just curious' when Pandora looked from the Doctor to him. "Sure, Spaceman. See you tomorrow," she said, and the Doctor turned to leave.

The two watched him go for a while, then turned East to trudge back across the farmland in the direction of the faire. "Is this how it always is with you two?" Blaise asked, breaking the silence.

"Well, a bit. It's always different, and there are long periods of just nothing, but yeah. The amazing bits are just brilliant."

They were quiet for a while longer, then Blaise spoke again. "I could help, you know. I'm stronger than I look, and I, um, I could... help."

Pandora smiled. "If you are looking for an interview, you should send your CV to the Doctor."

Blaise looked at his feet. "Yeah, um, I'm building up to that. But what do you think? It wouldn't be all bad having me around, right?" He looked up at her hopefully.

Pandora's smile remained, but looked a bit forced. She seemed to come to a decision and turned serious. "Okay, I've got three questions," she said.

They walked on in silence for a while. Blaise waited for Pandora to ask her questions, but several minutes went by in silence. Finally he prompted, "Okay, ask away."

Pandora looked over at Blaise as they walked. "Have you ever lit anything on fire, just for fun?" She had one eye closed, as if looking toward the bright sun.

"Wow, um," he said, blowing out air. "Yeah, I guess, when I was a kid. Ant hills and magnifying glasses, you know. Who hasn't?"

Pandora didn't comment, she just went on to her second question. "Do you think that a man and a woman can ever truly be 'just friends'?"

"Well, yeah. Of course," he said. Pandora watched him as if expecting more, so he elaborated. "Most of the time, I suppose, if they're honest, one of them is looking for something more, but that doesn't always happen, so yeah. Just friends."

Pandora nodded. She was quiet for a while longer. They reached the ropes surrounding the carnival, and Pandora remembered the dogs, so she stopped. Blaise stopped as well, waiting for the third question.

"There is a runaway trolley, no driver. It's heading down the tracks straight toward a group of children at play, oblivious. In front of you is a button that will shunt the trolley to another track, but there is currently an old man slowly crossing that track. You only have seconds to act. Do you push the button?"

"Definitely," Blaise said immediately. His eyes held a question, as if to ask, "Who wouldn't?"

Pandora paused briefly. "Why?" she asked.

"Well, because the old guy's lived his life, hasn't he? I mean, I'd feel horrible after, but yeah."

Pandora nodded, swallowing hard, but showing no other sign of judgement.

"So? Did I pass?"

Pandora smiled weakly and cocked her head to the side. "You got some place we can reach you?" she asked, one eye closed again.

"My buddy has a business recycling vegetable oil, you can leave a message for me there."

Pandora pulled a biro out of her bag and stuck out her hand for him to write on. He jotted down the number and handed the pen back.

"I'll call you," she lied.

Blaise smiled excitedly and jogged on toward the fairgrounds, pausing to turn and wave once he'd ducked through the ropes.

She turned and walked in silence, North to the District tube stop. She'd get off at Edgware and pick up her box before the Doctor got there. And if she had a bit of a cry on the way, that'd be nobody's business but hers.


End file.
